42 RESOURCES OF SOUTHERN ALABAMA. 



stream, for several miles near Elba at least. All the streams 

 other than the Chattahoochee River rise in the coastal plain 

 south of the black belt, and are not very muddy or cal- 

 careous, and most of them are bordered by swamps. (The 

 Chattahoochee passes considerably to the eastward of the 

 black belt, and washes comparatively few calcareous strata.) 

 There are a few small water-powers, chiefly grist-mills, and 

 a large hydro-electric plant on the Pea River four or five 

 miles below Elba. 



SOILS. 



The soils are more sandy than in the western division, 

 partly on account of the nature of the strata and (probably) 



FIG. 12. Dam at hydro-electric plant on Pea River about four 

 miles below Elba, Coffee County. Strata in foreground are of the 

 Wood's Bluff formation. July 28, 1919. 



partly on account of a certain climatic difference mentioned 

 below, and this causes important differences in vegetation, 

 population and agriculture. The prevailing texture classes 

 are sandy loam, sand, fine sandy loam, fine sand, loamy 

 sand, meadow, swamp, and coarse sand. The average tex- 

 ture is evidently coarser than in the western division, and 

 there can be little doubt that representative chemu al an- 

 alyses would show the fertility to be less eastward. 



CLIMATE. 



There are no weather stations in this region established 

 long enough to give reliable records, but it is evident from 



